For Eamon Gilmore, last Saturday’s Conference address was by far and away the biggest of his political career. Since becoming leader in September last year he has put in consistently solid performances in the Dáil and has been widely accepted as the best performer on the opposition benches. But attacking the Government is one thing, setting your stall out to provide a positive alternative is quite another.
For Eamon Gilmore, last Saturday’s Conference address was by far and away the biggest of his political career. Since becoming leader in September last year he has put in consistently solid performances in the Dáil and has been widely accepted as the best performer on the opposition benches. But attacking the Government is one thing, setting your stall out to provide a positive alternative is quite another.
At last November’s conference there was a positive atmosphere about the place which was helped by the lack of television coverage. RTÉ rules dictate that only one party conference per year will be televised, and owing to the fact that a pre-election conference had been held in the Helix, Eamon Gilmore’s first main address was given essentially in private. Eamon had also just lost his mother who had raised him as a young widow, and so the hall was pulling for him.
But this year the world has completely changed. David Begg made a casual comment about nationalising the banks on Saturday afternoon, a comment which would have sounded outrageous only twelve months ago. Now it sounds like a sound economic argument – it truly is a changed set of circumstances. People are now looking for answers because the economy is now in absolute meltdown. They are looking for a way out, they want leadership and from Eamon Gilmore on Saturday they found it.
Don’t take my word for it, this is what Mark Hennessy in The Irish Times had to say: “In truth, Gilmore’s speech was a master class; the best that he has ever given and, probably, one of the finest orations given by any political leader at a party conference of any hue in Ireland for many a long year.” Some praise, and very well deserved.
The speech was personal, poignant, positive, determined, statesmanlike and wonderfully inspirational. In the hall it had us rocking and rolling and texts that I received on my mobile immediately after the address seemed to suggest that it went down a treat at home too. It placed Labour right at the heart of the action, offering solutions, giving hope, demanding respect and setting us apart from the conservative axis of the two main parties. When he announced that “we are neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael, we are Labour”, I’m pretty sure that the row I was sitting in moved in its entirety at least two feet to the left.
It will be interesting to see if the enthusiasm for the speech is reflected in polling numbers as time passes. While the ‘Gilmore for Taoiseach’ signs may have been seen as being wildly optimistic, it is clear that a line has been drawn in the sand and that Eamon Gilmore will be a central figure in the next government. When that government is formed and with whom is yet to emerge, but these definitely are interesting times.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin is a primary school principal in the Sheriff Street area of Dublin, a member of the Labour Party, and formerly Dublin’s Deputy Lord Mayor. His column appears every week in Metro Éireann
